


Breathe Again

by ElfWeyrwomanOfLetters



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Dead Sam Winchester, F/M, Female Gabriel (Supernatural), cystic fibrosis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-26
Updated: 2018-12-26
Packaged: 2019-09-27 19:15:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17167760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElfWeyrwomanOfLetters/pseuds/ElfWeyrwomanOfLetters
Summary: It had been eight years since they met one another at the hospital, he a patient and she his nurse.Now the disease was running rampant again and he was losing this round.What will his wife do, when she is left with two kids and one more on the way?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Based on an RP I did with Obsessive_mishamigo
> 
> Trigger Warning: Cystic fibrosis is a terminal genetic disease and if you have it, I'm deeply sorry if this depiction offends you.  
> This is not a nice disease and it broke my heart to write these scenes in the first time, let alone the thought that it's real and that people live through this for a brief time.

It had been eight years since he’d had his lung transplant to help delay his cystic fibrosis diagnosis.

Eight years since he had told a pretty nurse to “Fight Me” and all she did was give him a smile and disassemble his hasty pillow fort.

Later, he’d done it again and she replied that she wouldn’t because she knew he’d win. She’d consented to be his wife the next year and they’d had two wonderful kids together.

Sam was starting to try and hide the fact that he was getting sick again.

After dropping their daughter off at school and their son at daycare one day, he knew he could no longer hide it.

He had become too weak, those two tasks alone taking him an hour to do while a healthy person would only take 15 minutes.

Doing what he dreaded the most, he drove to the hospital and started to shuffle in while texting his wife.

All he managed to send her was ‘911’ before he collapsed in front of the check-in desk, startling the new receptionist.

 

Dropping the sealed positive pregnancy test back in her purse, Gabby sprinted out of the bathroom and headed for her locker to grab her things, quickly getting sidetracked to the emergency by a summons. 

Switching departments for the day, she hovered around Sam, checking his vitals and inwardly cursing at the horribly familiar symptoms manifesting again.

 

An hour later, Sam’s eyelids barely lifted enough to see his fretting wife. “Hey…. you….” He could barely talk, it hurt so much to breathe. A slow hand came out and touched hers.

She kissed his hand, upping the painkillers before sitting on the edge of the bed, leaning over to kiss him. “Hi, handsome. Miss me again, you had to visit me at work?”

“Fight… me….” His lips curled up for a small smile. “M sorry... I promised not to break your heart.” A tiny tear rolled down his cheek.

She wiped her own face, visibly trying to stay calm for him. “Nah, you’d still win, you’re bigger than me. They meant in other ways, baby, like dumping me or cheating on me. You better keep fighting, you have to meet our third child.”

“You’re… pregnant?” Another tear fell and he moved his hand to her stomach. “That’s… amazing.” His head fell back into the pillow. “I love you.”

Watching her pull out the test, her tears finally fell as she held it up to him, helping his shaking hand hold it briefly. “I love you too, my pillow fighter, with all my heart.”

He looked at it with a teary smile, wishing he knew what to say to make it better, but the words left him in another wave of agony. 

An hour later, he fell asleep and never woke up, free of the pain forever.


	2. Chapter 2

Gabby was sitting there holding his hand when he passed, automatically flicking the screeching machines off in accordance to his Do Not Resuscitate order.

Staring blankly as best she could through the tears, she could only audibly choke out her heartbroken pleadings once. “Please, come back to me…”

Finally gesturing the other nurses in, she was closed off as she walked away, fists clenched to keep her upright as she went to the nearest phone to call Dean.

“Gabby? You never call me at this time of day, what’s wrong?” Dean had answered the phone while she was trying to shut down her emotions to avoid a meltdown.

Her voice cracked horribly, yet she powered through. “Sam died 10 minutes ago, Dean. In the hospital, with me by his side. The CF came back, he didn’t have a chance.” She had to take a slow breath to continue. “At least I got to tell him I’m pregnant before he fell asleep. He just never woke up.”

The other end just clicked as Dean drove straight to the hospital, not even giving himself time to have the same breakdown as he sped down streets from the other side of the next town where he worked. “Gabby…” He said, seeing her.

The only thing he could do was give her a hug. “He loved you, so damn much.” He whispered to her, tears finally falling.

Leading him to a couch usually used for lunch break naps, she burrowed into his chest as her heart and soul shattered, buried under her concern for him. “I know. He used to tell me funny stories about you two, I’m so glad you were his brother.”

Knowing they’d have moved the body, she eventually led Dean downstairs to the morgue, one hand on her stomach as they stepped up to the table where Sam lay.

“We uh… we pre-ordered everything for him, knowing it would come back eventually. I’m so sorry, Dean.”

Seeing his brother laying there made it too real, she could tell when it hit him too.

“Sammy…” He broke into a full sob. “Damn it, Sammy. Too young, man. You were too young…” He trailed off. 

He turned and faced Gabby. “I’m sorry…” She saw him trying to swallow, sympathizing with her own tight throat.

Bending over to kiss her husband for the last time, she just wrapped around Dean, stretching as big as she physically could to hold and protect him.

“Don’t apologize. You’re allowed to feel all this, manly or not. Will you be ok to drive home or are you going to stay in my guest room for a while?”

A quivering chin was all she got before Dean couldn’t physically see anymore. He dropped to his knees and both hands shot up to his face. “Damn it…”


	3. Chapter 3

Taking Dean home after clearing out her locker for the next few days, Gabby tucked him in on the couch before cleaning up for when the kids got out of school.

After texting a friend to pick up her son, she set her phone down and quietly stepped into Sam’s office, desperate to smell him again before she had to figure out how on earth to tell her kids their father was dead.

Absently poking through his files to keep her fingers occupied, she found envelopes addressed to her in a desk drawer, opening them quickly.

There was proof of the high-level cases he'd been working and how he'd been planning for the future.

Seeing that their children would be taken care of education-wise lifted so much weight off her shoulders that she actually giggled, the sound getting higher pitched at the sheer numbers on the emergency fund documents.

When she opened the second parcel, however… that’s what broke her. She read his words, his declaration of eternal love and devotion, hearing it in his voice so when the heartbeat shaped necklace fell into her palm with the sentiment that she would hold his heart forever, she commenced sobbing herself sick, fingers closing tight around it hard enough it left an imprint on her skin.

 

‘Gabrielle Cheyenne Winchester (nee Novak) has died today according to her friends and family.

The most beloved nurse in town and a firm researcher, she never stopped searching for a cure for many terminal diseases, including cystic fibrosis, which made her a widow at the mere age of 29.

Predeceased by her husband Samuel and brother-in-law Dean, she leaves behind 3 children, 12 grandchildren, and over 20 great grandchildren so far.

She was 96. 

Rest in peace.’


	4. Chapter 4

Gabby didn’t care what anything looked or felt like, other than her body didn’t hurt, but if she was in the afterlife then she would find that long shaggy head of hair and yank it down so she could kiss the husband she’d been missing for decades. “Sam?!”

Climbing some steps, she gasped as the dream house they had planned as newlyweds appeared as she crested the hill, her handsome moose of a husband running towards her, obviously having heard her call.

She wrapped her limbs around him like a koala as he reached her and scooped her up, sobbing into his neck in between kissing him like he was the only air in existence. “Sam, I’ve missed you so much!”

“I am so sorry I didn’t get to see our third child.” He kissed her back over and over again. “I’ve been watching you… Now that I say that, it sounds creepy. But I’ve missed you so much too.” He started to cry as well.

Gabby just started to laugh, wiping their cheeks with her fingers.

“Little Sam looks like you, but with my height. Several of the grandchildren and greats are a perfect mix of us.” She shot him a sassy smile, kissing him again. “We make pretty babies, husband. Oh, and you might like this.”

Keeping herself steady in his arms with her legs, she pulled her shirt collar down enough to expose her heart, showing the black words “Fight Me” tattooed into her skin, interwoven with Sam’s name in white.

He choked up hard, kissing her marked flesh. “You always said you would do that. I’m so damned proud of the life you’ve lived.”

“Only made it because I knew you were waiting. Your brother helped so much after you were gone and that’s why little Sam’s middle name is Dean.” She let herself relax and drape against him, unable to look away from his face. “There was never anyone else. No one could come close. You got a room for your nurse up here, love?”

“Of course I do, you’re my soulmate.” He moved so he was carrying her bridal style and carried her inside, kissing her every other step.

Once the door was shut, he put her down, breathing deeper than he ever had. “The great thing about here, there’s never any pain. And now I’ll only have joy.” He kissed her soundly.

Gabby smiled tearfully, sliding into his arms as if she'd never left. "I love you so much."

"I love you too, Gabrielle."


End file.
